Collateral Damage


you loved your sweet country for all of your life
like your mother and father before you
and the land runs deep, so deep in your blood
your flesh and your bone and your sinews
descendants and ancestors, deep as it goes
a relative circle as far as your eye
it can all be undone in the flash of an instant
mechanical thunder that bruises the sky

goodbye to my relatives, all of my life
never again will I see
you won’t have a name when they fly the big airplanes
collateral damage is all you will be

from a faraway place where the language is strange
they come with their angry machines
and the clouds rain a metal that hurts when it falls
and it shatters the ground, making everything scream
and the children run crippled, the old people hide
the babies are caught in the rubble debris
but the strangers don’t know, you are only a number
under-reported on color TV

goodbye to my relatives, all of my life
never again will I see
you won’t have a name when they fly the big airplanes
collateral damage is all you will be

a mother is more than a number to a baby
who now has to grow up on it’s own
and a grandfather blinded and crippled at his age
is more than just a statistical drone
all of these people are human
and humans are more footnote
this cynical language of killing is killing us
caught like a bone in humanity’s throat

goodbye to my relatives, all of my life
never again will I see
you won’t have a name when they fly the big airplanes
collateral damage is all you will be

so if you see a ghost in the lonely wind blowing
like shrapnel the sound of the rain
and it’s speaking a language you don’t understand
but you know what it means just the same
it’s too late for innocence, all of that’s over now
don’t say that you didn’t know
when they come to collect for the damages owed
the collateral may be your own

goodbye to my relatives, all of my life
never again will I see
you won’t have a name when they fly the big airplanes
collateral damage is all you will be